Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Holy Week is an emotional and spiritual roller-coaster. On Palm Sunday Christ is given a king’s welcome into the city of Jerusalem by Friday is he is crucified only then to find him risen again on Sunday!

However, beside the emotional torrent, Holy Week is also sacramental. The supper scene where Christ break bread and shares wine is part of the larger passion narrative. What has constituted a sacrament for the Catholic Church is reflected in its relations to Christ’s work on earth. Though my seminarian friends would contend with me, I agree that specific sacraments extend past Baptism and Eucharist and include Confirmation, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Ordination, and Marriage (I try in vain to persuade my Protestant friends that if they become Catholic they’ll get three times the sacraments and receive three times the grace!). The sacraments are to be outward signs of inward grace. However, why not an eighth sacrament: Foot-washing?

Usually a sacrament is rooted in the work of Christ. Foot-washing figures prominently in thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. It reads:

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

The imperative seems clear, be servants even if lords. Wash feet and be humbled.

For Catholics the rite is timidly embraced on Maundy Thursday services (today) participation is usually voluntary and is in variance depending on the church.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like idea of washing someone else feet. But that’s the point. It is to become humbled. I could think of few things more unpleasant than washing my neighbors’ feet.

Of course, the cross should humble us. It should shake us till we weep, and doesn’t the song, “I was there when they crucified my Lord” do that? And yet, sometimes the cross is too big, its too awing. It sometime seems to perfect, clean, theologized, detached, and abstract. So, while during those times, why not in worship, turn to our neighbors, and wash? It would be a reminder that God in Christ washed the apostles’ feet. The awkward, uncomfortable and tense feelings that would surely swell in both the washer and recipient would not be an emotion to overcome, but wallow in, just as the apostles were aghast at Christ’s action, and then in turn realize that they too would be asked to wash feet, and be humbled.

Should foot-washing really be a sacrament? I do not know, but I think it could have a powerful place in worship for conveying how we should only come to the altar table in humbleness. Surely, how one approaches the altar for Eucharist is how one approaches the Holy Week; humbled.

18 comments:

Crazy protestants only have two sacraments, but if we were to add a third, foot washing would be it... mainly because it focuses the Church on the radical and loving life of Christ that we are called to do in turn. Like Peter, we are called to be served AND to go out and serve; in the act of both recieving and doing, we are recognizing ourselves and others as deserving of compassion, relationship and service. Knowing this we can recognize the whole world as both human and an image of the divine.

A little behind, but relating this to the wonder that is General Conference (go UMC)...if foot washing were to become a sacrament, then deacons (a fair # of them, anyway, b/c of the recent legislation passed by the GC which allows deacons on a circumstantial basis to administer the sacraments in the absence of an elder) would lose their place altogether in the church. Often times, deacons are shown with the elements for foot washing, as a representation of a life dedicated to service. I'm not saying that foot washing shouldn't be a sacrament, but I do think that other aspects of the church's orders would need to be examined if that were to happen.

My friend and I were recently discussing about how we as a society are so hooked onto electronics. Reading this post makes me think back to that discussion we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.

I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Societal concerns aside... I just hope that as the price of memory drops, the possibility of copying our memories onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's one of the things I really wish I could see in my lifetime.

Hello, I currently bought a computer and i installed all the anti-virus and other software. I want my internet to work but when i go to my hardware files. Ethernet Controller and Bus Controller and 2 other software have a question mark next to them. It says that there is errors installing it. Yes, i uninstalled it and installed it back but it wont work. i still cant go on the internet. btw, i bought the computer in different parts. Like i have HP Procesor and BenQ Monitor. Does this change anything? Please Help me solve this problem Thank you, Bakhti Mirzo [url=http://gordoarsnaui.com]santoramaa[/url]

Someone essentially assist to make seriously articles I'd state. This is the very first time I frequented your web page and so far? I surprised with the analysis you made to make this particular publish amazing. Great process!Also visit my web sitenaked girls porn

You can definitely see your expertise in the article you write. The sector hopes for more passionate writers such as you who aren't afraid to say how they believe. All the time go after your heart.My website > contractors in Orlando fl